Moorlands close in on top spot

Moorlands recovered from 31-2 thanks to Christopher Stott (42) and Andrew Fortis (39) and were boosted further by great efforts in the tail by Samuel Brynes (32 not out) and Joel Barnett (32) to put 207-9 onto the scoreboard.

Saints’ number one bat James Robson (27) was the leading light in Saints’ reply of 122 all out. Andrew Walker (3-40), Stephen Lane (2-39) and Brynes (2-20) kept the wickets tumbling.

Ossett made a return to the top of Division 1 with a classy 83-run home win over Liversedge.

Opening batsmen Robert Wade (71 not out) and Michael Edwards (56) put 118 on for the first wicket and accounted for the bulk of Ossett’s good total of 196-5.

Graeme Winn (2-43) and Shoaib Rehman (2-32) were the most successful Liversedge bowlers.

The visiting batsmen found it tough going with the top order falling to Charles Orme (2-25) and Shoaib Latif (3-48) before Naveed Sayeed (2-23) and Khalid Bilal (3-15) skittled out the middle and lower orders.

Rehman’s 25 was the top score in the Liversedge reply that ended on 113 after 40.5 overs.

Former leaders Hopton Mills were dethroned and are now third after going down by five wickets at home to Oulton.

Paul Moorhouse hit a superb 75 for Mills but attracted little support from the rest of his team-mates as Mills posted 163-9.

Oulton’s three pronged attack of Ian Barber (3-34), Jonathan Gardiner (3-49) and Stephen Preshaw (2-44) were in good form with the ball.

Michael Carroll (4-48) threatened to make light work of the Oulton innings as he reduced the visitors to 22-4 but opener Gardiner (41) and Ryan Healey (74 not out) combined with a 97-run partnership that propelled their team to 164-5 after 45.3 overs.

East Ardsley’s home game against Methley A, Wakefield Thornes A’s trip to Scholes and Wakefield St Michael’s home clash with East Leeds were all cancelled due to the wet weather.

l Batley crashed out of the Jack Hampshire Trophy quarter-finals with a nine-wicket home loss to Townville.

Fawad Maqsood (32) scored most of the runs in Batley’s 90 all out and Townville eased to 93-1 in less than an hour.

The quarter-final clashes between Wrenthorpe and New Farnley and Birstall and Wakefield St Michael’s were postponed.